Rain hammered against the stadium roof as the crowd roared for a goal that never came.
On the bench, Ares Draven sat alone, a forgotten substitute with a number no one bothered to remember.
"Useless."
"Wrong pick."
"He'll never make it."
He heard it all. Every match. Every week.
Yet tonight, something inside him refused to stay silent.
When the team's star striker collapsed with an injury, the coach finally barked:
"Ares! Get in!"
It should have been his moment—
his chance to prove he wasn't a mistake.
But three minutes later, a brutal tackle crushed his chest.
Ares felt the world tilt.
His vision blurred.
His heartbeat… stopped.
The stadium noise faded into a suffocating, endless darkness.
As he sank into the void, a cold, mechanical voice echoed from nowhere:
[WillForge System Initialized…]
[Scanning Host's Remaining Willpower… 0.3%. Critical.]
[Rebuilding Will… Forging a New Core…]
[Host Selected: Ares Draven. The Unbreakable Will.]
A spark ignited in the darkness—
bright, violent, unstoppable.
Then the voice struck him like thunder:
[Rise, Ares.
You died once.
Now forge the world with your will.]
Ares gasped, awakening on the stretcher.
Medics froze.
The crowd went silent.
His eyes no longer looked human.
They burned with something terrifying—
a will that refused to break.
The system chimed again inside his mind:
[First Quest:
Stand up. Step back onto the field.
Rewrite your fate.]
Ares clenched his fist.
And stepped toward destiny.